Frederik Hansen

Organoids (self-organized multi-cellular tissue derived from e.g. patient-derived stem cells) are emerging in vitro 3D representations of human organ functionality, predicted to have a game-changing impact on drug discovery, disease modeling and personalized medicine [1]. Integrating the organoids in a microfluidic chip (i.e. organoids-on-a-chip) would allow for controllable perfusion of nutrients and manipulation of the organoids by the addition of e.g. drugs [2]. Coupling the organoid-on-a-chip online to liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) would enable real-time measurements of the biochemical processes that occur on-chip. However, limited sample sizes, complex matrices and the presence of low abundant analytes also create analytical challenges [3]. Moreover, the organoids are still at the developmental stage, thus fundamental questions on the functionality of the developed organoids remain to be answered. Liver organoid functionality was assessed by protein characterization of adult liver tissue and liver organoids using nanoLC-MS/MS. The proteins identified from the liver organoids covered 70-84% (1003 proteins) of the liver protein expression from adult liver tissue derived from five patients. The proteins that were shared between the adult liver tissue and liver organoids could also relate to central liver pathways (e.g. amino acid biosynthesis and glycolysis). The sample preparation technique electromembrane extraction (i.e. electrophoretic separation across an oil membrane, EME) has shown to have on-chip analytical potential [4] and was thus used in the study of heroin drug metabolism in liver organoids. Multi-well EME (100 µL solutions) allowed for simple and repeatable monitoring of heroin metabolism kinetics without interference from cell medium components (e.g. albumin). The EME extracts were also compatible with different analytical approaches (LC-MS, nanoLC-MS, capillary electrophoresis-UV). Hence, the hyphenation of EME with nanoLC-MS would be a natural next step. References 1. Method of the Year 2017: Organoids. Nature Methods. Vol. 15 (2018) 1-1. 2. Park, S.E., A. Georgescu, and D. Huh, Organoids-on-a-chip. Science. Vol. 364 (2019) 960. 3. Lin, A., F. Sved Skottvoll, S. Rayner, S. Pedersen-Bjergaard, G. Sullivan, S. Krauss, S. Ray Wilson, and S. Harrison, 3D cell culture models and organ-on-a-chip: Meet separation science and mass spectrometry. ELECTROPHORESIS. Vol. 0 (2019). 4. Hansen, F.A., D. Sticker, J.P. Kutter, N.J. Petersen, and S. Pedersen-Bjergaard, Nanoliter-Scale Electromembrane Extraction and Enrichment in a Microfluidic Chip. Analytical Chemistry. Vol. 90 (2018) 9322-9329.